HTML Question: How to execute a program on a client computer?

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H

hatboy

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
390
0
0
I'm wondering if it's possible to design some sort of link or button on an HTML page that when clicked will execute a particular program (an exe) on a client PC. I realize that this can be a security risk, but I'm really not intending to do anything nasty. I'm working on a web page for a Biology class, and they have a number of tutorials that they would like to be able to launch on computers in the classroom from the class web page.

By the way, this must work in Netscape 4.x in Windows 95/98.
 
V

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
I just did a test with the following code:

<HTML>

<A HREF=&quot;C:\WINNT\system32\calc.exe&quot;>Test</A>

</HTML>

It did work, but it asked whether to download or run from current location, &amp; it sure bitched about the lack of security information.

But it worked.

Viper GTS
 
H

hatboy

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
390
0
0
ViperGTS - Well, yeah, obviously that's a possibility, but I'd like to be able to avoid the save/run dialog and also the security warnings. I'd also like to avoid setting the browser to automatically run any .exe that is linked to (I only want it to run the ones on the class page).
 
DannyLove

DannyLove

Lifer
Oct 17, 2000
12,876
4
76
ummm, i'm not too certain that you can do this. relative or absolute, i think you'll still get the dl/run window. sorry, i cant help. good luck

danny~!
 
E

Elledan

Banned
Jul 24, 2000
8,880
0
0
Browsers never execute .exe and .com files unless they're configured to do so.

Use Viper's piece of code and configure the browser to execute .exe files (don't ask me how, I've never done it).
 
J

joohang

Lifer
Oct 22, 2000
12,340
1
0
You can't, unless your users disabled the open/save dialog box for .exe files.

Even if they did, IE will give out a security warning.

Perhaps you could try using HTA (HTML Application). It only works with IE5+ though. Check out the documentations at the MSDN Library. I can't guarantee that it will work, but it may have slightly different security settings.
 
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